


The Trick Is to Keep Breathing

by anr



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-09-10
Updated: 2009-09-10
Packaged: 2017-11-04 14:30:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/394895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anr/pseuds/anr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten loops Sam doesn't remember.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Trick Is to Keep Breathing

**Author's Note:**

> _Window Of Opportunity_ (4x06)
> 
> Latin translations in mouseover.
> 
> Request: waffles, Pine-Sol and hockey.

  
_\--flash--_

  


There is this moment, when they step through the 'gate, when she looks up at the storm, looks down at her instruments, looks up at him, and.

"The storms are building up," he says.

A little surprised to hear her own thought spoken, she nevertheless nods. "We shouldn't stay long."

His expression is more a grimace than anything else. "We won't."

  
_\--flash--_

  


She finds him in the gym, strapping his hands. "Sir?"

"What is it, Major?"

He uses his teeth to rip the tape; watching him, she clasps her hands behind her back. "Has anyone considered --"

"-- the possibility that the beam's accessing the 'gate's subspace field in order to generate a time inversion outside of subspace?" He pauses, shakes his head. Doesn't look at her as he claps his hands together and stands, walking away. "Nope, sorry, never."

  
_\--flash--_

  


"What do _you_ think?"

"Daniel --" She looks up from her own breakfast, curious as to how he'll field this one. "I think you should vado screw vestri somes."

It's a toss up as to what she hears first -- the sound of Daniel's fork hitting his plate of waffles, or his shocked, " _Jack!_ "

Confused, she looks back to the Colonel. "What did you say?"

  
_\--flash--_

  


She's looking for some double-fibre glass wire when the door to the supply closet opens and Colonel O'Neill steps in, quickly yanking the door shut again behind him.

"Colonel?"

Looking up, he blinks once, the flash of surprise on his face muting into something else. "Oh, right. I forgot. Sorry."

 _Huh?_ "Colonel?"

He chucks a thumb over his shoulder. "Daniel's looking for me. Figured it'd be best to..." He looks around the closet briefly; stops and shrugs. "Anyway."

She really doesn't understand him sometimes. "Well, I'll be out of your way in a minute, Sir. I'm just trying to find --"

Reaching for something behind the bottles on Pine-Sol on the top shelf near the door, he tosses it to her, her reflexes kicking in at the last moment.

"-- this," she finishes awkwardly, staring at the coil of wire in her hands. Surprised, she looks up at him. "How did you --"

He shrugs again. "Lucky guess."

  
_\--flash--_

  


There is this moment, in the gym, as she watches him attack the bag, muscles flexing with each punch, a sheen of sweat on his skin, hair damp on the back of his neck --

Spinning on her heel, she backtracks quickly to her lab, breathing just a little too fast for her own good.

Maybe she'll try finding him again after she's run some simulations.

  
_\--flash--_

  


Less than an hour before they're due to leave for P4X639, she heads to the surface at Teal'c's suggestion, more than a little surprised to find the Colonel shooting for goals between Ferretti's Wrangler and Michaels' Volvo.

"Sir? What are you doing?"

"Grab a stick, Carter," he says, nodding towards the hockey bag sitting on top of Nurse Rajasak's trunk. "Let's see if you've improved any since the last time."

She blinks. "The last time?"

"What? Oh," he pauses suddenly, shaking his head, "right. Sorry."

She takes a step closer. Then another. "Is everything okay, Colonel?" He's been quiet all day, she thinks, ever since breakfast. Hardly speaking a word to anyone. He hadn't even cut her off in the briefing this morning when she started theorising about the possible ramifications of the coronal mass emissions predicted for '639.

He grimaces, and her concern spikes a little higher. "Sir?"

"Carter, let me ask you something." She watches as he folds his arms across the top of his hockey stick, leaning forward. "What would you say if I told you that I had a bad feeling about today? That I believed there was every possibility we would not see tomorrow ever -- _ever_ \-- again."

"I'd --" A half dozen possible responses flash briefly in her mind, all of them inappropriate. Forcing a smile, she shakes her head. "A bad feeling, Sir? SG15 found no evidence of a Goa'uld presence on the P4X639. Just the archaeologist who's been studying the ruins."

Sighing, he straightens up. "Right."

Why does she get the feeling that was the wrong thing to say? "Colonel --"

"It's okay, Carter." Hefting his hockey stick, he turns his back to her, heading towards the puck. "You go on -- I'll meet you guys in the 'gate room."

She hesitates.

"That's an order, Major."

She snaps to out of habit. "Yes, Sir."

  
_\--flash--_

  


She focuses on the screen. "Two weeks ago SG15 took these images of solar activity on P4X639. Analysis of the data indicates a steady increase in the intensity --"

Colonel O'Neill interrupts her. "Iam quando tu es dexter the explosions ista nos es arbitro arbitror \--" Off her look of shock, he shrugs. "What? I'm just guessing."

  
_\--flash--_

  


She's in the middle of a time inversion simulation when the Colonel enters her lab, a book of latin conjugations in one hand and a coffee mug in his other.

"Daniel's still on page one-eighty," he says without preface, grabbing one of the chairs in the corner and turning it so it's parallel to the bench. "You don't mind, right?" Without waiting for an answer, he sits down and props his feet up, opening his book to somewhere in the middle.

She opens her mouth.

"No, you don't need to call Doc Fraiser -- I'm after peace and quiet, not another round of _I Spy_."

She closes her mouth.

Without looking, he points his mug towards her laptop. "Two point five four nine six two eight."

She glances at the screen automatically, jaw dropping as the number flashes up. "How --"

"Uh uh! Peace and _quiet_ , Carter." He turns a page in his book. "Don't worry -- in a few hours, you won't even remember I'm here."

  
_\--flash--_

  


She's in the control room, setting up a series of diagnostics that will -- she hopes -- give her a clue as to what the Colonel and Teal'c are claiming will happen to the 'gate, when she senses him standing behind her. Without looking, she says, "I'm hoping to determine if the subsp--"

"A word, Major?"

Turning away from her screen, she reads his stance quickly, standing herself and, at his gesture, following him out of the room. In the corridor he stops and turns to face her, his expression so serious that she finds herself snapping to attention on instinct.

He waves a hand. "At ease, Carter -- I want to tell you something."

She relaxes her stance minutely. "Sir?"

He grimaces a little. "Look, the thing is --"

"Is this about the simultaneous connections with the 'gates within the bubble? Because I've --"

"No, I --"

The look on his face sparks against something inside her, something inappropriate. She keeps talking. "If you're worried that the --"

"No. Carter --"

"I made sure I double-checked the --"

He snaps. "Damnit, Carter. Shut up a second, will you?" Frustrated, he rubs a hand over his face. "Look, all I want to say is -- is --"

 _Oh_ , she thinks then. "Sir." She looks away, licks her lips. Maybe she's wrong. "What you want to tell me -- is it something I'll remember?"

He's silent for a long moment. Then, "no."

Her heart begins to beat too fast, too loud. She wonders if he can hear it. Cautiously, she raises her gaze to meet his. "Is that -- is that _why_ you want to tell me?"

He doesn't answer, just looks at her, and.

 _Oh_.

In the control room, there's the unmistakable sound of the 'gate activating.

Slowly, maybe too slowly, she smiles. She smiles, and maybe leans in a little closer, maybe thinks, _what if_.

He smiles too.

"Tell me tomorrow," she says.

  
_\--flash--_

  


There is this moment, at breakfast, when he looks at her, looks at her like he hasn't in weeks, not since before the Zatarc incident, and --

She remembers this feeling.

  
_\--flash--_

  


The End

**Author's Note:**

> ORIGINAL URL: <http://anr.livejournal.com/366906.html>


End file.
